GEC help...

Mike Large

Mike Large

Joined
Jun 24, 2017
Messages
419
My first GEC ever, 78 American Jack. It was very very hard to open, but great walk and talk, so I left the blades half way open all night to maybe ease a bit of tension. Now the blades have no walk and talk what so ever. Neither will snap shut??? I have to push both blades literally 100% of the way down just to close them. Any help on this issue would be very much appreciated.
 
That sounds nearly impossible.
Have you tried lubing the pivots and maybe a little along the spring with the blades at 90° ?
The other possibility is your cat peed on it and it seized up.
That was a joke :D

The fact that it was extra hard to open could have been friction in the pivots at one point and now it has changed a bit to prevent it from closing.

PS: when closed is the spring flush or proud of the frame ?
 
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I used daiwa oil and still no better? Going to run it under hot water, dry, and lube it again I guess. My apologies for the thread but never had a GEC and surprised of this issue. It was fine before leaving it half open all night just a serious nail breaker
 
Mike Large said:
It was fine before leaving it half open all night just a serious nail breaker
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That's not fine in my book. If SAK can make 'em consistently easy to open so can GEC.
or they should

PS: when closed is the spring flush or proud of the frame ?
 
Wowbagger said:
That sounds nearly impossible.
Have you tried lubing the pivots and maybe a little along the spring with the blades at 90° ?
The other possibility is your cat peed on it and it seized up.
That was a joke :D

The fact that it was extra hard to open could have been friction in the pivots at one point and now it has changed a bit to prevent it from closing.

PS: when closed is the spring flush or proud of the frame ?
Click to expand...
The spring is flush... I mean it was perfect before leaving it open just extremely stiff
 
Mike Large said:
The spring is flush... I mean it was perfect before leaving it open just extremely stiff
Click to expand...

What I was thinking about the spring is if it were flush before and it is proud (sticking up a little above the back) of the knife now you may have bent the spring by opening both blades at once.

If the spring were properly heat treated this could not happen. If it were softer heat treat than usual then It could bend and stay bent.
 
I closed it before work today, gonna use hot soapy water and lube it up again when I get home. If it doesn't work then I guess it wil have to be sent back. Drag. I refuse to give up on it because it's an amazing knife. I'll post a picture after work tonight
 
My first thought was it may be an issue with the oil but i have used daiwa on all my Benchmades, case, and even Chris reeve knives and never had an issue
 
Mike Large said:
My first thought was it may be an issue with the oil but i have used daiwa on all my Benchmades, case, and even Chris reeve knives and never had an issue
Click to expand...
Nah it would have to be wax lube like "White lightning lube" and even then it would have to be freezing cold to make the knife act like yours is.

even 90 wt gear oil or grease would work fine just collect tons of junk
 
Half way? Doesn't the 78 have half stops? It doesn't seem like leaving the knife at 90° would do anything to the spring, just as leaving it fully open or fully closed. It sounds like it's gunked or rusted up or something. Very strange.
 
Planterz said:
Half way? Doesn't the 78 have half stops? It doesn't seem like leaving the knife at 90° would do anything to the spring, just as leaving it fully open or fully closed. It sounds like it's gunked or rusted up or something. Very strange.
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Halfway of halfway if that makes any sense. The pen blade seems to be a bit worse...15193767702961920899046.jpg 1519376814901218262867.jpg
 
Yeah, this doesnt seem fixable to me. Washed it out good, relubed it for the third time... still won't shut. Going to just send this one in...1519377468674940221176.jpg
 
Sounds like the spring has a crack in it and is about to break.

Take look at the spring from the inside while you move the blades, look for cracks or openings in the spring.
 
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To be fair to GEC, knives aren't really designed to be left with tension on the springs for any significant period of time.

I've heard many stories of spring breakage from this very act, and also many that had no change in spring tension whatsoever. It certainly falls into the 'sketchy' use territory.

Whatever the problem may be sorry it happened to your knife, I know it must be extremely disappointing to happen to such a nice one. Looking forward to updates.
 
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